


SOUL of Fear, Always Afraid

by ArgentDandelion



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Analysis, Character Analysis, Fear, Gen, Glitchtale, Meta, Nonfiction, Redemption, Social Anxiety, Souls (UnderTale), Villains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:19:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21539773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgentDandelion/pseuds/ArgentDandelion
Summary: This work claims Betty's pink SOUL makes her naturally inclined to fearfulness, and as defined by her fear as Frisk is defined by their Determination. This claim is used as the basis for how to remove her motivation for evil.
Kudos: 12





	1. Indirect Evidence

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [GlitchTale](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/559339) by Camila Cuevas. 

##  **SOUL of Fear, Always Afraid: Part 1**

In _GlitchTale_, humans act in accordance to the traits of their SOUL colors. In the series, Frisk’s red SOUL indicates Determination, and Frisk is defined by being determined. Agate, with a SOUL of Bravery, acts bold. Jessica Grey, with a blue SOUL of Integrity, is defined by her honesty and strong moral principles, to the point that breaking her promise to her daughter causes SOUL trait loss. Frisk may not feel especially determined moment-to-moment, but it’s very characteristic of them throughout the series.

If all these people consistently act according to their SOUL traits, what about Betty, with her SOUL of Fear?

Betty was created by using the Bête Noire spell to invert Agate’s SOUL of Bravery, turning it into its opposite. In principle, how she acts and/or would be the opposite of how Agate acts and/or feels, at least before Agate’s trait loss after losing a fight with her brother.

There’s some indirect evidence for this. Some characters have hair and eye colors which match their SOUL color. When Agate and Jessica Grey lose their traits, their hair colors change to grey. Though most color-switches in the series are sudden and complete, there are a few instances where Jessica’s streak loses its color but she keeps partial blue in her eyes, suggesting it’s possible to have partial SOUL-colored hair and eyes.

Trait loss, furthermore, causes a loss of magical ability. If this is on a spectrum with less color leading to less power, and more color leading to more power, it may mean that the pinker Betty’s hair becomes, the more of a trait she has, or the more she expresses that trait. There does seem to be a correlation between how afraid Betty is, how pink her hair becomes, and how much power she has. In Game Over (Part 2), Ronan (a mage) says: “Being in sync with our emotions helps us do our jobs [involving magic] better.” If that means embodying a trait well strengthens one’s magic and/or embodying a trait less well weakens one’s magic, it would support Betty’s magic getting stronger the more afraid she is.

Notably, when Betty is disintegrating after one of Undyne the Undying’s attacks in LOVE: Part 1 (6:26), she seems unconscious or dying. At this point, and no other, her hair is entirely brown. It’s not exactly possible to feel afraid while unconscious.

## Caveats

However, there are points where her power spikes when she is not afraid. Her hair conspicuously gets pinker with no increase in her fear when her pink blobs kill more humans in Season 2, Episode 3. When she uses her Rhabdophobia attack in Season 2, Episode 3, her hair is entirely pink, but she has the advantage in battle and isn’t afraid. Her hair is also entirely pink as she’s about to kill Gaster in the same episode, but within a second after being shot by Ms. Grey, her hair regains some brown.

This might suggest her power doesn’t depend on how much fear she specifically feels, but the fear others around her or extensions of her (the pink blobs) feel, combined with her own. (e.g., her kids she killed, Gaster’s fear) After all, Jessica Grey and Alphys wouldn’t be as afraid as Gaster once they come in, and when Gaster knows he’s not in immediate danger, his fear would lessen.

If Betty’s power depends on how much fear she can induce in others, it would explain her counterproductive tactics of making people terrified of her. After all, if people are scared of her, they are more likely to band together to attack a common enemy.

Though Betty’s hair does turn brown as she is disintegrating, the interpretation that her hair turns entirely brown when she feels no fear has its problems. If that were true, then wouldn’t SOUL-colored hair always turn to a normal color when the hair’s owner was asleep? There’s little evidence for that, and it does seem strange.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted on my [Tumblr](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/). Feel free to comment on this article there or here.


	2. Direct Evidence

## SOUL of Fear: Always Afraid? Part 2

  
Screencapture of Betty, from Camila Cuevas’s Undertale fan animation, GlitchTale.

While the previous post in the series covered indirect evidence for Bete Noire (“Betty”) being defined by her fear, the direct evidence is more persuasive. Betty seems to have a natural tendency for fear. When she first gained consciousness, she was a blank slate, but acted very frightened of Kumu. While Betty did quickly recover from her panic, the fact she responded with fear, and not fascination, bafflement, or just a neutral expression, may say something about her natural tendencies.

She didn’t exist by herself for long, though: Agate soon regained power or consciousness, and influenced Betty. At some point, Agate told her that monsters were dangerous and humans could not be trusted, and that the two races living together was just a “time bomb” waiting to go off. Betty may have accepted Agate’s claim unquestioningly because she was a blank slate, naturally prone to paranoia, or both.

Later experiences “proved” Agate right. Betty (as shown in [supplementary material](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=denied%3A%28https%3A%2F%2Fcamilaart.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F154217522635%2Fwhat-am-i-something-made-to-be-hated%29&t=NDYyNWI2MGNmNmFiOTAwZjVlODI3Yzg5NGM2NGQzZjIzYTVjOTI2ZCwzWlNYaTBrQg%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F189319164496%2Fsoul-of-fear-always-afraid-part-2-see-series&m=1)) was able to see into the memories of others by looking into their eyes, and concluded Asgore, Asriel, and Sans were a bunch of untrustworthy murderers.[1](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189319164496/soul-of-fear-always-afraid-part-2-see-series#fn:1) Most likely because of this memory-viewing, she kept believing monsters were a threat despite harmless or even positive interactions with Toriel, Sans, Asriel and Papyrus in “My Sunshine” and “Dust”.  
She still distrusts humans: seeing Frisk’s many genocide routes in their memories proved Frisk untrustworthy to her. (Oddly, despite her anti-monster beliefs, she didn’t ally herself with Frisk, someone with a history of killing monsters.)[2](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189319164496/soul-of-fear-always-afraid-part-2-see-series#fn:2) If she saw more than just Frisk’s Genocide Route memories, then perhaps she discarded memories of their kindness and the Pacifist Route because it didn’t fit with her paranoia.

**Deeper Fears, Anxieties, and Insecurities**

If Betty was a blank slate prone to fear, easily persuaded to listen to no one else, then she was the perfect pawn for Agate. Agate told her Kumu (who’s really just part of Betty) is and would be her only friend. In Season 2, Episode 1 (1:00), Betty is hanging around the door of Toriel’s classroom, and looks anxious. Later, she tells Frisk that kids were sorted into classes based on SOUL color, but, with her unique SOUL color, she didn’t fit in. She says this in an anxious or sad way.[3](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189319164496/soul-of-fear-always-afraid-part-2-see-series#fn:3)

Betty manipulated Jessica Grey very effectively, so it’s not out of the question posing as a mildly-anxious girl as just an act to deflect suspicion or make others reluctant to harm her. Yet, it seems unlikely. Her dialogue to herself and Kumu in supplementary material suggests anxiety and/or uncertainty with its frequent ellipses, as well as suggesting Betty is lonely because she’s the only one of her kind and can trust no one but Kumu (and presumably Agate).

> What am I?…   
Something made to be hated?…  
… Looks like it…   
I never asked to be made…  
I didn’t ask to be this way…   
But it’s what I am. And here we are trying to fulfill our purpose despite our doubts… 

This shows how her problems go deeper than just having no friends but Kumu. She seems conflicted over something about herself, whether it’s the fact she is neither a human nor a monster or the effects of having a SOUL of Fear. Indeed, “something made to be hated” does match the series’ dictionary definition of “Bête noire”: “A person or thing strongly detested or avoided”. Making a horrible abomination may have been the whole point of the Bête Noire spell, by which Betty was created and named after. Apparently, Betty feels she has no choice but to execute her purpose and cannot turn back, despite her (unspecified) doubts.

Worse, in “Do or Die”, Gaster says there can be only one pink SOUL of Fear existing at one time. If Betty also knows this, it removes the possibility of ever befriending anyone like her. Perhaps Betty’s starry-eyed interest in Mettaton in “Dust”, comes from the belief he was neither human nor monster, but a magic robot with a SOUL, and so a potential friend.

While she’s been very afraid when fighting monsters before (e.g., Gaster, and especially Undyne the Undying), it seems she’s most afraid (or simply not confident) when she cannot physically attack her problems. For example, she cannot simply attack her uncertainties about her purpose and her isolation, nor can she physically attack the HATE substance threatening to take over her.

If Betty’s power increases the more afraid she is, then one wonders whether Agate deliberately isolated Betty so her fear (and thus power) would increase. Betty might execute her mother’s will without question simply because she’s not close to anybody else, and hasn’t experienced anything that would prove her mother’s beliefs wrong. Indeed, Betty trusts Agate so much that she varies between calling Agate her mother and seeming to conflate Agate with her own identity. To be specific, when she saw Agate’s remains in [supplementary material](https://camilaart.tumblr.com/post/178172750550/something-i-wanted-to-add-in-the-animation-at-some), it’s impossible to tell whether she was going to say “my mother” or “my body”.

While Frisk, too, feels similar despair or anxiety at various points in the series, Frisk quickly recovers. Perhaps it is from Frisk’s tendency for determination, the comforting words of others, observing their friends’ close bonds with each other, or some combination. Betty, however, has no friends (unless Kumu counts), receives little comfort, and believes she has no choice but to live a fearful, friendless, murderous life.

* * *

* * *

  1. In her defense, she might not have had training to properly evaluate others’ claims, and if she was naturally fear-prone, it would be very tempting to pin it all on something specific and possible to fight. [↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189319164496/soul-of-fear-always-afraid-part-2-see-series#fnref:1)

  2. It’s plausible Agate wanted to kill off monsters because they could gain godlike power with seven human SOULs, and she would logically tell Betty about that. Yet, in GlitchTale, the barrier wasn’t broken after Frisk defeated the God of Hyperdeath. It’s weird, though…if Betty can see Frisk’s memories, surely she’d see Asriel with seven human SOULs wasn’t some unstoppable, bloodthirsty threat. Can she only see some memories? [↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189319164496/soul-of-fear-always-afraid-part-2-see-series#fnref:2)

  3. Betty is aware she is neither human nor monster. She may very well have wanted to attend Toriel’s school just because it was strategic for her evil plans. Still, the fact she was set apart even when she was disguising herself as a human must have hurt. [↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189319164496/soul-of-fear-always-afraid-part-2-see-series#fnref:3)


	3. Counterpoints

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Counterpoints to the idea Betty's pink SOUL makes her naturally prone to fear.

One might ask, “If Betty is defined by her fear, as Frisk is defined by their determination, then why isn’t Betty afraid all the time?” Frisk is defined by their Determination, but Frisk doesn’t act determined every second of the day. Indeed, when their Determination is drained in Season 1, or when hearing of Sans’ death in Season 2, Frisk seems to feel despair or just a sad lethargy. Both are, in fact, the _opposite_ of what would expect for a Determined SOUL. Similarly, Betty is capable of various emotions and traits. Beyond fear, she’s capable of anger, irritation, and interest, and is concerned, even compassionate, about Kumu when Kumu is hurt. (although Kumu is really just a part of herself)

Sometimes, Betty’s behavior is the opposite of one would expect for someone with her SOUL trait and beliefs. There are times where she seems comfortable around monsters: in “My Sunshine” (14:23) she meets Sans and Asriel, who do nothing to harm her. Furthermore, Betty stayed over at Gaster’s house for a while: a situation that would logically frighten her. Admittedly, she wasn’t there for the entire time: on the meeting day in “My Sunshine”, when she was supposedly sleeping there, she had actually gotten out.

While there are many instances where she acts anxious, lonely, uncertain and afraid, at other times she is angry or terrifyingly confident, even putting on a murderous smile as she fights monsters or inflicts pain. It could be that she enjoys destroying what she thinks are threats.

However, her smiles could also serve to hide her fear or pain. This is especially plausible if one supposes her SOUL trait usually manifests as low-level anxiety she can easily hide, in which case her broad grin on meeting Sans and Papyrus could be a sign of nervousness. Adding onto counter-intuitive signals, there a few instances (_see above_) where she gives a big smile while her hair is pinker than usual, suggesting her fear levels are spiking. (Or her power is just increasing)

One might also point out that, although Betty’s hair gets pinker when powering up, and even goes entirely pink when very afraid or very powered-up, the exact pinkness ratio could be chalked up to model variability. After all, though her hair’s pinkness is generally midway up her eyes, at one point (_above)_ her pink level is up to her lips in a situation where lower-than-usual fear does not make sense. (Do or Die, 15:02) It’s also true the style of GlitchTale changes over the course of Season 2, and it can even change slightly within the same episode.

Camila Cuevas herself clarifies that:

> “When [Betty’s] scared she gets a power boost. She also gets it from causing fear to others as she can feel what they’re feeling as well.”

This might suggest that, rather than wanting to cause fear to others because she herself is afraid (or insecure/anxious), she goes around terrifying others for no other reason than giving herself a power boost. (Counterpoint: If she desires a power boost so she has the power to take down a threat, and she’s paranoid of said threat, isn’t it still related to being fearful?)

“as she can feel what they’re feeling as well” might suggest she has some kind of mental power to feel others’ emotions. In this case, it is rather odd that she deliberately inflicts fear on others, and feels their fear herself. If Betty indeed has some kind of emotional-telepathy (“empath ability”), it’s possible her emotional processing is impaired or immature. If one presumes Betty is a reincarnation or aspect of Agate, who went insane and is “emotionally unstable”, one could presume her enjoyment in inflicting fear on others is not somewhat practical or caused by immature emotional processing, but caused by serious mental dysfunction born of obsession.

Oddly, after fusing herself back with Kumu, Betty’s hair color never changes in pinkness, and, with the possible exception of 23:00 in the episode _Hate_ (above), she never feels insecurity, anxiety or fear. It’s impossible to tell whether this is caused by the fusion itself, the HATE substance, or powering up through collecting many, many human SOULs.

* * *

**UPDATE:** As of the latest episode, Hate, the series’ creator says Betty _is_ Agate, rather than being a composite being. It is unclear whether this would affect previous posts’ interpretations that Betty considers Agate her mother, or whether it would only be a factor when interpreting later episodes.


	4. How to Redeem Bête Noire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having established that Betty's SOUL might make her always afraid, this chapter suggests ways to alter her SOUL.

The antagonist of GlitchTale’s second season, Bête Noire (“Betty”) is a unique being with a SOUL of Fear. As previous posts would suggest, her SOUL of Fear likely means her motivations and actions are fuelled by fear. This includes her desire to wipe out monsters, supposedly because they pose a threat to humanity. Yet, as previous posts have pointed out, Betty’s belief monsters threaten humanity is deeply illogical. However, her fears about them is so deep-seated that, to remove her motivation for villainy, her very SOUL would probably have to be altered.

Both SOUL trait loss and drainage have happened multiple times in GlitchTale, showing it is possible. While these have all happened to humans, and Betty is not human, nonetheless her SOUL was created from a human one and still has human SOUL-like properties.

##  **Approach 1: Trait Drainage**

Many human characters have eye, hair, and text colors matching their SOULs. Both Jessica Grey and Frisk survive the drainage or loss of their SOUL traits, as shown either directly or by changes in hair or eye color. In Jessica’s case, she loses and regains her trait multiple times in the series, without seeming to affect her bodily health. Were Betty’s fear trait to be drained the same way, it might mean she would feel a reasonable amount of fear, and perhaps make her amenable to reason. (if perhaps only temporarily) It is unlikely she would naturally lose her fear trait, especially as the season progresses, thought it might be possible to alter her SOUL properties artificially.

If Chara’s emptied SOUL, as shown in the Season 1 episode Continue (_above_) can be filled with multiple SOUL traits, it is possible Betty’s SOUL can be similarly drained and filled with other traits. Yet, if completely draining her SOUL would kill her, or put her in a comatose-like state of extended dying (Sans’ SOUL was partially drained, which must have interfered with reviving him), then partial drainage could be more feasible. At a few points, Jessica Grey loses her Integrity trait, but apparently only partially: her eyes remain halfway blue. This might mean it is possible to experience only a partial trait loss.

If trait drainage is impossible, trait swapping could be better. Betty’s SOUL was created by using the Bête Noire spell on an inverted SOUL of Bravery: Agate’s SOUL. It might be possible to invert it once more. While supplementary material states that the chances of surviving an unnatural SOUL trait inversion are low, this was applied to humans: if it’s possible for Betty, there no telling whether it would be equally dangerous.

## Approach 2: Bicolor SOUL

The GlitchTale character Rave Rutrow has purple-and-yellow eyes, hair, and text, showing he has two SOUL traits. This is not entirely without canon precedent: all the SOUL modes parallel the colors of the humans that fell in, possibly meaning they’re limited to real SOUL colors. In the Nintendo Switch version of Undertale, Mad Mew Mew’s SOUL mode is Blue/Red, with the SOUL split down the middle, possibly meaning humans can have two SOUL traits.

While Betty is not human, the similarities between her SOUL and a human one might mean a bicolor SOUL is possible. However, Rave’s two-colored SOUL is natural, while changing Betty’s SOUL to a two-color SOUL would not be. Partial drainage of her SOUL, and then filling it with some other trait might result in a bicolor SOUL.  
While adding the Kindness trait might be the most intuitive solution, adding Bravery instead would surely be more likely to work, since the SOUL has already housed the Bravery trait before. (Unless that simply makes Betty bolder and less conflicted, which might make her even more dangerous.)

## Applications & Complications

Betty is occasionally anxious early on in the series: she might be interested in SOUL modification, if only to test whether it would make her stronger (to better kill monsters) or prevent panic from leading to bad decisions (to better kill monsters). It’s doubtful Betty would agree to SOUL alterations if she believed it would change her perspective or motivations, because, of course, her fears would seem reasonable to her. Yet, afterwards, she might be able to interact peacefully with monsters without feeling any fear, anxiety, or paranoia, and it would be harder to keep up a plan to exterminate them if she feels no fear for them.

The easiest time to do this would be before Betty kills Sans, or assuming Asriel wasn’t able to run away and explain Betty’s true nature. (It’s after this point Betty’s disguise as a sweet, more-or-less normal human girl becomes less useful.) If Asriel didn’t corroborate Gaster’s claim on the Pink SOUL of Fear, it might be just an interesting coincidence. Betty’s magical power comes from her SOUL trait; were she to lose her trait and her SOUL to turn grey, she would lose access to her magic. If Frisk knows Betty poses a threat or considers her an enemy, Betty would likely interpret any offer to drain or change her trait as a ploy to weaken her. (and perhaps then kill her) After all, Agate told her humans can’t be trusted.

**What if Betty is Actually Agate?**

The particulars of how to redeem Betty differ depending on whether Betty and her creator, Agate (“The Wizard of Bravery”), are separate beings, or Betty is just a different body with different abilities that Agate is using. As of “Hate”, Betty’s connections with Agate seem to intensify, and perhaps even show she and Agate count as the same person.

Still, Agate may have essentially frozen her paranoia and insecurity in place by changing her SOUL to a pink one. So, even if Betty is actually Agate, changing Agate’s SOUL color might allow her to stop being so afraid. According to supplementary material, Agate was externally brave but internally insecure. The idea she would never be stronger than her brother, Copper (“The Wizard of Determination”), due to things beyond her control, made her insecure. Later losing to her brother so humiliated her that she lost her trait, and she later returned with her SOUL inverted to a trait of Fear. (Her SOUL turned pink only in a last-ditch attempt to perpetuate her existence by creating an abomination)

For all her/Betty’s counter-productive decisions, Agate is actually smart. Her humiliation, insecurity, and power-mad status just made her very mentally unstable. If her fearfulness and anxiety were not locked in place, she might be persuaded to find more constructive ways to deal with her fear and desire to protect humanity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally posted separately from the "SOUL of Fear, Always Afraid?" series.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on my [Tumblr](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/). Feel free to comment on this article there or here.


End file.
